Euripides (480-406 B.C.) very popular in later Greek times, little appreciated during his life sometimes known as "the father of melodrama"
Characteristics of Euripides' plays:
dealt with subjects usually considered unsuited to the stage which questioned traditional values (Medea loving her stepson, Medea murdering her children)
dramatic method often unclear -not always clearly causally related episodes, with many reversals, deus ex machina endings
many practices were to become popular: using minor myths or severely altered major ones
less poetic language, realistic characterizations and dialog
Tragedy was abandoned in favor of melodramatic treatment.
Theme emphasized: sometimes chance rules world, people are more concerned with morals than gods are.
The Cyclops Cyclops - Euripides Cyclops This ludicrous play was performed at the annual Athenian dramatic festival (the City Dionysia), after a full day of tragedy.
What purpose do you think it served? What do you think an audience was supposed to take away from it?
How does the chorus of satyrs' worship of Dionysus differ in this play from the chorus of bacchants' worship of the god in Euripides' Bacchants? How does the character of Dionysus differ in the two plays?
This is a particularly good play for exploring the dynamics of alterity, since Odysseus is defined against both the Cyclops and the satyrs. What qualities of the Greek man come across through this double contrast? Are there any ways in which they are superior to him?
This play is not a tragedy but a satyr play. How does it differ from the tragedies we have read?
How does Euripides' Odysseus differ from the Odysseus of the Odyssey? What about Euripides' Cyclops? Is he the same or different?
What does the presence of the satyrs do to the story?
What direct echoes of Odyssey 9 are here? What elements of the story are conspicuously different?What do you make of the arguments of Odysseus as to why he should not be eaten, and those of the Cyclops regarding why he should be eaten?
Did you feel at all sorry for the Cyclops? Why or why not?
Terms and Names:
Euripides' Bacchants, cont.
a play about theatrical experience ("metatheatrical")
what is illusion (mimêsis: imitation) and what is reality? theater makes you lose yourself: Pentheus becomes a bacchant when he dresses like one the play lets its audience experience Dionysiac worship, in all its terror and ecstasy
City Dionysia
religious festival and civic ritual
tragedy -- a complex and ambiguous lesson in Athenian values satyr play -- a lesson in ???
Euripides' Cyclops (our only whole remaining satyr play!)
based on Homer's Odyssey
cast:
Cyclops (Polyphemus) satyrs (and their leader Silenus): more satyrs, and more, and more
Odysseus
Defining mankind between the extremes:
food
wine -- symposium
(more non-pornographic images of symposia here and here)
religion
social organization
Euripides (480-406 B.C.) very popular in later Greek times, little appreciated during his life sometimes known as "the father of melodrama"
Characteristics of Euripides' plays:
Tragedy was abandoned in favor of melodramatic treatment.
Theme emphasized: sometimes chance rules world, people are more concerned with morals than gods are.
http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/spd130et/ancientgreek.htm#Com
e-Notes biography
e-Notes summary The Cyclops
Euripides
Euripides
Chapter 7.3: Classical Greek Tragedy (Euripides)
- Alcestis - 438 B.C.
- Andromache - 428-24 B.C.
- The Bacchantes - ca. 410 B.C.
- The Cyclops - ca. 408 B.C.
- Electra - 420-410 B.C.
- Hecuba - 424 B.C.
- Helen - 412 B.C.
- The Heracleidae - ca. 429 B.C.
- Heracles - 421-416 B.C.
- Hippolytus - 428 B.C.
Ads(Richard Aldington, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
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(Robert Potter, transl.)
(Robert Potter, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
(E.P. Coleridge, transl.)
The Cyclops - Complete text of the play.
The Cyclops - An anlysis of the play by Euripides.
The Cyclops
The Cyclops
Cyclops - Euripides
Cyclops
This ludicrous play was performed at the annual Athenian dramatic festival (the City Dionysia), after a full day of tragedy.
Terms and Names:
Euripides' Bacchants, cont.
a play about theatrical experience ("metatheatrical")
what is illusion (mimêsis: imitation) and what is reality?
theater makes you lose yourself: Pentheus becomes a bacchant when he dresses like one
the play lets its audience experience Dionysiac worship, in all its terror and ecstasy
City Dionysia
religious festival and civic ritual
tragedy -- a complex and ambiguous lesson in Athenian values
satyr play -- a lesson in ???
Euripides' Cyclops (our only whole remaining satyr play!)
based on Homer's Odyssey
cast:
Cyclops (Polyphemus)
satyrs (and their leader Silenus): more satyrs, and more, and more
Odysseus
Defining mankind between the extremes:
food
wine -- symposium
(more non-pornographic images of symposia here and here)
religion
social organization
If you are interested in seeing more images of Athens and its theater, check out this awesome site, with 3-D virtual tours of the Acropolis: http://www.stoa.org/metis/cgi-bin/qtvr?site=south
There is also an excellent site dedicated to ancient theater at http://homepage.usask.ca/~jrp638/skenotheke.html with lots of further links.
Finally, check out this clip of an updated version of Bacchants by the National Theatre of Scotland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnHm3IPmpuU